This is a book about a man who is unable to feel pain. Fate condemned him to be born in the 18th century—the age of reason and calculation, atheism, executions, and revolutions. Driven by a thirst for success, James Dyer, the central figure of the novel, reaches the peaks of his career: he is an excellent surgeon, but because of his particular trait he cannot feel compassion for his patients…
Andrew Miller’s novel became a notable event in the literary life of Great Britain, and—translated into many languages of the planet—it turned into a worldwide bestseller. It is deservedly compared with Patrick Süskind’s famous “Perfume.”